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Before the first crunch of shoulder pads there are hints that college football 2013 may be the season you tell the grandchildren about.
Louisville could run the table.
Western could make the Sun Belt a last roundup and stepping stone to bowl game not in Detroit.
And, Kentucky could win a half-dozen games.
Before all that, however, football’s glamour boy Johnny Manziel has put football in the stage lights.
Kid from Texas A&M earned as much sensational prose the last 12 months as Edward Snowden, Ryan Braun and A-Rod combined.

Trial balloons were floated in 2011. Last month an NCAA conference commissioner issued a new set of buzz words for college sports fans to wrap their minds and tongues around. The town crier was sent to the gate ringing his bell to declare “Hear ye, hear ye all!”
Transformational change.
Transformational ... what?
A five syllable synonym for money. Also a fool’s temptation to open the proverbial Pandora’s Box.

When Kenny Perry came huffing and puffing to the 18th green at the 34th Seniors Open Golf Tournament Sunday in Omaha, we had to smile. An age thing.
Here’s our guy again. Two weeks removed from winning his first Senior Players Championship in Pittsburgh, Perry had wobbled the first two days in Omaha then charged to the front and led by five as he came up the hill to enjoy TV face-time, applause and whistles reserved for a winner on a Sunday evening ahead of 60 Minutes.

Let us celebrate with moderation, Nerlens Noel’s good fortune this celebratory week (July 4).
A multi-millionaire, ($2,640,600, according to NBA Rookie pay scale), the newest Philadelphia 76er is probably house shopping for mom, gated community of course. And, assuming he has a driver’s license, a shiny new car to go with tailored and monogrammed wardrobe, while his agent negotiates a product endorsement or two.
Noel has arrived. Life is good, right?
Well, maybe.

One of our state’s iconic athletes left last week. Calvin Bird was 75.
Turning back what doesn’t feel like so many pages, but is — football in Corbin on a Friday night. One fence-leaner townie putting a pun on his pals, “By golly, that Bird boy’s really somethin’, ain’t he? He can fly!”
Indelibly, I remember a crisp autumn evening, aroma(s) fresh cut grass, popcorn and cheap cigars on the air and temperatures chilled enough to make visible the frosty exhale of offensive line squared up to start spending adrenaline.

An Internet basketball opinion piece from Bleacher Report last month offered for discussion the “10 Most Polarizing Figures in College Basketball.”
There were some good, some not and naturally, a few debatables from writer Doug Brodess.
Four have ties to our basketball triangle. No. 7 Rick Pitino, No. 6 Adolph Rupp, No. 4 John Calipari, and of course, Bob Knight at No. 1.
A (Brodess) sampling.
PITINO teams have always played with an in-your-face brashness, applying huge amounts of pressure on both ends of the court.

When year-end time comes to chronicle the Kentucky Story in Sports 2013, the suspense will be like Secretariat in the Belmont Stakes 40 years ago. June 9, 1973, Secretariat by 31 lengths.
Story in Sports 2013 - University of Louisville athletics by 31 lengths.
In the latest chapter of 2012-13, the baseball Cardinals (51-12) are off to Omaha, Neb., this week for the college World Series.

Stephen Hawking hasn’t noticed, but Planet Basketball has returned to its rightful orbit in the heavens. A coaches preseason college poll reflects no sight or sound from Tobacco Road as Indiana, Louisville and Kentucky rank 1-2-3.

Ten years ago, Spencer County High School suited up the first football team in its history. I’ve been told that the old Taylorsville High School fielded a football team many decades ago, but for recent decades, Friday nights in the fall had been mostly uneventful in Taylorsville.

First, college graduation. Photo from Lexington. Darius Miller and Eloy Vargas in cap and gown. Young men prepared to paint the next grid on life’s picture. We are especially hopeful for Miller. Man’s knack for making good impressions and good decisions and right place, right time, look promising.